This invention relates to methods and system or arrangements for detecting a child seat in a vehicle, and optionally the orientation thereof, which enables other vehicular systems, such as an occupant restraint device, to be affected or controlled based on the detection of a child seat.
In 1984, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a requirement for frontal crash protection of automobile occupants. This regulation mandated xe2x80x9cpassive occupant restraintsxe2x80x9d for all passenger cars by 1992. A more recent regulation requires both driver and passenger side airbags on all passenger cars and light trucks by 1998. In addition, the demand for airbags is accelerating in both Europe and Japan and it is expected that, within a few years, all vehicles produced in these areas (36 million vehicles) and eventually worldwide (50 million vehicles) will be equipped with airbags as standard equipment.
Whereas thousands of lives have been saved by airbags, significant improvements can be made. As discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462 cross-referenced above, and included herein by reference, for a variety of reasons, vehicle occupants can be or get too close to the airbag before it deploys and can be seriously injured or killed upon deployment of the airbag.
Also, a child in a rear facing child seat, which is placed on the right front passenger seat, is in danger of being seriously injured if the passenger airbag deploys. This has now become an industry-wide concern and the US automobile industry is urgently searching for an easy, economical solution, which will prevent the deployment of the passenger side airbag if a rear facing child seat is present. An improvement on the invention disclosed in the above-referenced patent application, as will be disclosed in greater detail below, includes more sophisticated means to identify objects within the passenger compartment and will solve this problem.
Initially, these systems will solve the out-of-position occupant and the rear facing child seat problems related to current airbag systems and prevent unneeded deployments when a seat is unoccupied. Airbags are now under development to protect rear seat occupants in vehicle crashes. A system will therefore be needed to detect the presence of occupants, position, i.e., determine if they are out-of-position, and type, e.g., to identify the presence of a rear facing child seat in the rear seat. Future automobiles can be expected to have eight or more airbags as protection is sought for rear seat occupants and from side impacts. In addition to eliminating the disturbance of unnecessary airbag deployments, the cost of replacing these airbags will be excessive if they all deploy in an accident. The improvements described below minimize this cost by not deploying an airbag for a seat, which is not occupied by a human being. An occupying item of a seat may be a living occupant such as a human being or dog, another living organism such as a plant, or an inanimate object such as a box or bag of groceries.
A device to monitor the vehicle interior and identify its contents is needed to solve these and many other problems. For example, once a Vehicle Interior Identification and Monitoring System (VIMS) for identifying and monitoring the contents of a vehicle is in place, many other products become possible including the following:
Inflators now exist which will adjust the amount of gas flowing to the airbag to account for the size and position of the occupant and for the severity of the accident. The vehicle identification and monitoring system of this invention will control such inflators based on the presence and position of vehicle occupants or of a rear facing child seat.
Side impact airbag systems began appearing on 1995 vehicles. The danger of deployment induced injuries will exist for side impact airbags as they now do for frontal impact airbags. A child with his head against the airbag is such an example. The system of this invention will minimize such injuries.
Future vehicles may be provided with a standard cellular phone as well as the Global Positioning System (GPS), an automobile navigation or location system, is now available on at least one vehicle model. In the event of an accident, the phone may automatically call 911 for emergency assistance and report the exact position of the vehicle. If the vehicle also has a system as described below for monitoring each seat location, the number and perhaps the condition of the occupants could also be reported. In that way, the emergency service (EMS) would know what equipment and how many ambulances to send to the accident site.
Vehicle entertainment system engineers have stated that the quality of the sound in the vehicle could be improved if the number, size and location of occupants and other objects were known. This information can be provided by the vehicle interior identification and monitoring system of this invention.
Similarly to the entertainment system, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC) could be improved if the number, attributes and location of vehicle occupants were known. This can be used to provide a climate control system tailored to each occupant, for example, or the system can be turned off for certain seat locations if there are no occupants present at those locations.
In some cases, the position of a particular part of the occupant is of interest such as: (a) his hand or arm and whether it is in the path of a closing window so that the motion of the window needs to be stopped; (b) the position of the shoulder so that the seat belt anchorage point can be adjusted for the best protection of the occupant; or, (c) the position of the rear of the occupants head so that the headrest can be adjusted to minimize whiplash injuries in rear impacts.
The above applications illustrate the wide range of opportunities, which become available if the identity and location of various objects and occupants, and some of their parts, within the vehicle were known. Once the system is operational, it would be logical for the system to also incorporate the airbag electronic sensor and diagnostics system (SDM) since it needs to interface with SDM anyway and since they could share computer capabilities which will result in a significant cost saving to the auto manufacturer. For the same reasons, it would be logical for VIMS to include the side impact sensor and diagnostic system. As the VIMS improves to where such things as the exact location of the occupants ears and eyes can be determined, even more significant improvements to the entertainment system become possible through the use of noise canceling sound, and the rear view mirror can be automatically adjusted for the driver""s eye location. Another example involves the monitoring of the driver""s behavior over time which can be used to warn a driver if he or she is falling asleep, or to stop the vehicle if the driver loses the capacity to control it.
Using an advanced VIMS, as explained below, the position of the driver""s eyes can be accurately determined and portions of the windshield can be selectively darkened to eliminate the glare from the sun or oncoming vehicle headlights. This system uses electro-chromic glass, a liquid crystal device, or other appropriate technology, and detectors to detect the direction of the offending light source. In addition to eliminating the glare, the sun visor can now also be eliminated.
The present invention adds more sophisticated pattern recognition capabilities such as fizzy logic systems, neural network systems or other pattern recognition computer based algorithms to the occupant position measurement system disclosed in the above referenced copending patent application and greatly extends the areas of application of this technology. An example of such a pattern recognition system using neural networks using sonar is discussed in two papers by Gorman, R. P. and Sejnowski, T. J. xe2x80x9cAnalysis of Hidden Units in a Layered Network Trained to Classify Sonar Targetsxe2x80x9d, Neural Networks, Vol.1. pp 75-89, 1988, and xe2x80x9cLearned Classification of Sonar Targets Using a Massively Parallel Networkxe2x80x9d, IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Vol. 36, No. 7, Jul. 1988.
xe2x80x9cPattern recognitionxe2x80x9d as used herein will mean any system which processes a signal that is generated by an object, or is modified by interacting with an object, in order to determine which one of a set of classes that the object belongs to. Such a system might determine only that the object is or is not a member of one specified class, or it might attempt to assign the object to one of a larger set of specified classes, or find that it is not a member of any of the classes in the set. The signals processed are generally electrical signals coming from transducers which are sensitive to either acoustic or electromagnetic radiation and if electromagnetic, they can be either visible light, infrared, ultraviolet or radar.
xe2x80x9cTo identifyxe2x80x9d as used herein will mean to determine that the object belongs to a particular set or class. The class may be one containing all rear facing child seats, one containing all human occupants, or all human occupants not sitting in a rear facing child seat depending on the purpose of the system. In the case where a particular person is to be recognized, the set or class will contain only a single element, the person to be recognized.
Some examples follow:
In a passive infrared system a detector receives infrared radiation from an object in its field of view, in this case the vehicle occupant, and determines the temperature of the occupant based on the infrared radiation. The VIMS can then respond to the temperature of the occupant, which can either be a child in a rear facing child seat or a normally seated occupant, to control some other system. This technology could provide input data to a pattern recognition system but it has limitations related to temperature. The sensing of the child could pose a problem if the child is covered with blankets. It also might not be possible to differentiate between a rear facing child seat and a forward facing child seat. In all cases, the technology will fail to detect the occupant if the ambient temperature reaches body temperature as it does in hot climates. Nevertheless, for use in the control of the vehicle climate, for example, a passive infrared system that permits an accurate measurement of each occupant""s temperature is useful.
In a laser optical system an infrared laser beam is used to momentarily illuminate an object, occupant or child seat in the manner as described, and illustrated in FIG. 8, of U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462 cross-referenced above. In some cases, a charge-coupled device (a type of TV camera also referred to as a CCD array) or a CMOS device is used to receive the reflected light. The laser can either be used in a scanning mode, or, through the use of a lens, a cone of light can be created which covers a large portion of the object. Alternately, one or more LEDs can be used. In each case, a pattern recognition system, as defamed above, is used to identify and classify, and can be used to locate, the illuminated object and its constituent parts. This system provides the most information about the object and at a rapid data rate. Its main drawback is cost which is considerably above that of ultrasonic or passive infrared systems. As the cost of lasers comes down in the future, this system will become more competitive. Depending on the implementation of the system, there may be some concern for the safety of the occupant if the laser light can enter the occupant""s eyes.
Radar systems have similar properties to the laser system discussed above. The wavelength of a particular radar system can limit the ability of the pattern recognition system to detect object features smaller than a certain size. Once again, however, there is some concern about the health effects of radar on children and other occupants. This concern is expressed in various reports available from the United States Food and Drug Administration Division of Devices.
The ultrasonic system is the least expensive and potentially provides less information than the laser or radar systems due to the delays resulting from the speed of sound and due to the wave length which is considerably longer than the laser systems. The wavelength limits the detail, which can be seen by the system. Additionally, ultrasonic waves are sometimes strongly affected by thermal gradients within the vehicle such as caused by flowing air from the heater or air conditioner or as caused by the sun heating the top of the vehicle causing the upper part of the passenger compartment to have a higher temperature than the lower part. In spite of these limitations, as shown below, ultrasonics can provide sufficient timely information to permit the position and velocity of an occupant to be accurately known and, when used with an appropriate pattern recognition system, it is capable of positively determining the presence of a rear facing child seat. One pattern recognition system which has been used to identify a rear facing child seat uses neural networks and is similar to that described in the above referenced papers by Gorman et al.
A focusing system, such as used on some camera systems, could be used to determine the initial position of an occupant but is too slow to monitor his position during a crash. This is a result of the mechanical motions required to operate the lens focusing system. By itself it cannot determine the presence of a rear facing child seat or of an occupant but when used with a charge-coupled device plus some infrared illumination for night vision, and an appropriate pattern recognition system, this becomes possible.
From the above discussion, it can be seen that the addition of sophisticated pattern recognition means to any of the standard illumination and/or reception technologies for use in a motor vehicle permits the development of a host of new products, systems or capabilities heretofore not available and as described in more detail below.
This invention is a system to sense the presence, position and type of an occupant in a passenger compartment of a motor vehicle and more particularly, to identify and monitor occupants and their parts and other objects in the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle, such as an automobile or truck, by processing one or more signals received from the occupants and their parts and other objects using one or more of a variety of pattern recognition techniques and illumination technologies. The received signal(s) may be a reflection of a transmitted signal, the reflection of some natural signal within the vehicle, or may be some signal emitted by the object. Alternately, the signal may be a modification of a transmitted signal or the signal may be a transponded signal as in the case of a radio frequency identification tag (RFID). Information obtained by the identification and monitoring system is then used to affect the operation of some other system in the vehicle.
The principle objects and advantages are:
1. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of another vehicle system such as the airbag system, heating and air conditioning system, or entertainment system, among others.
2. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and then to determine his/her position and to use this position information to affect the operation of another vehicle system.
3. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and then to determine his/her velocity relative to the passenger compartment and to use this velocity information to affect the operation of another vehicle system.
4. To determine the position of a seat in the vehicle using sensors remote from the seat and to use that information in conjunction with a memory system and appropriate actuators to position the seat to a predetermined location.
5. To determine the position, velocity or size of an occupant in a motor vehicle and to utilize this information to control the rate of gas generation, or the amount of gas generated, by an airbag inflator system or to control the amount of gas flowing into or out of the airbag.
6. To determine the fact that an occupant is not restrained by a seatbelt and therefore to modify the characteristics of the airbag system. This determination can be done either by monitoring the position of the occupant or through the use of a resonating device or reflector placed on the shoulder belt portion of the seatbelt.
7. To determine the presence or position of rear seated occupants in the vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of a rear seat protection airbag for frontal impacts.
8. To determine the presence or position of occupants relative to the side impact airbag systems and to use this information to affect the operation of a side impact protection airbag system.
9. To determine the openness of a vehicle window and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.
10. To determine the presence of an occupant""s hand or other object in the path of a closing window and to affect the window closing system.
11. To remotely determine the fact that a vehicle door is not tightly closed using an illumination transmitting and receiving system such as one employing electromagnetic or acoustic waves.
12. To determine the position of the shoulder of a vehicle occupant and to use that information to control the seatbelt anchorage point.
13. To determine the position of the rear of an occupant""s head and to use that information to control the position of the headrest.
14. To recognize the presence of a rear facing child seat on a particular seat of a motor vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation of another vehicle system such as the airbag system.
15. To determine the total number of occupants of a vehicle and in the event of an accident to transmit that information, as well as other information such as the condition of the occupants, to a receiver remote from the vehicle.
16. To affect the vehicle entertainment system based on a determination of the size or location of various occupants or other objects within the vehicle passenger compartment.
17. To affect the vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioning system based on a determination of the number, size and location of various occupants or other objects within the vehicle passenger compartment.
18. To determine the temperature of an occupant based on infrared radiation coming from that occupant and to use that information to control the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
19. To provide a vehicle interior monitoring system for determining the location of occupants within the vehicle and to include within the same system various electronics for controlling an airbag system.
20. To determine the approximate location of the eyes of a driver and to use that information to control the position of the rear view mirrors of the vehicle.
21. To monitor the position of the head of the vehicle driver and determine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwise impaired and likely to lose control of the vehicle and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.
22. To monitor the position of the eyelids of the vehicle driver and determine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwise impaired and likely to lose control of the vehicle and to use that information to affect another vehicle system.
23. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupant and the direction of a light source such as the headlights of an oncoming vehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such a manner as to reduce the intensity of the light striking the eyes of the occupant.
24. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupant and the direction of a light source such as the headlights of a rear approaching vehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such a manner as to reduce the intensity of the light reflected from the rear view mirrors and striking the eyes of the occupant.
25. To determine the location of the ears of a vehicle occupant and to use that information to control the entertainment system so as to improve the quality of the sound reaching the occupant""s ears through such methods as noise canceling sound.
26. To recognize a particular driver based on such factors as physical appearance or other attributes and to use this information to control another vehicle system such as a security system, seat adjustment, or maximum permitted vehicle velocity, among others.
These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the vehicle interior identification and monitoring system of this invention.
One embodiment of the detector system for detecting the presence of the child seat on the seat includes a receiving unit for receiving waves from a space above the seat and means for generating a signal based on the received waves, e.g., variations thereof, which is indicative of the occupancy of the space above the seat. A different signal is generated for different occupants of the seat when the seat is occupied as well as for an empty seat. The signal indicative of the presence of a child, or a child seat, is known such that the presence of a child seat is detected when the known signal is substantially the same as the generated signal. The generating means may comprise a processor which receives a signal representative of the waves received by the receiving unit (either directly or after undergoing pre-processing) and analyzes it in order to generate the signal indicative of the occupancy of the seat to thereby enable a determination of whether a child seat is present in the seat and optionally its orientation. The detector system may include an emitter for emitting waves, e.g., ultrasonic or electromagnetic waves, into the space above the seat and if so, the receiving unit may be arranged relative to the emitter for receiving waves modified by virtue of any occupant of the seat. The receiving unit may include two wave receivers spaced apart from one another.
The analysis by the processor of the signal representative of the waves received by the receiving unit to generate a signal indicative of the occupancy of the seat may entail the use of pattern recognition techniques, such as a trained neural network. This could also enable the recognition and identification of the occupants of the seat.
One or more systems or components in the vehicle may be affected based on the signal indicative of the occupancy of the seat, in particular whether a child seat is present, e.g., the occupant restraint device which may be controlled to suppress deployment of the airbag.
In a method for controlling a system in the vehicle based on the occupying item in accordance with the invention, at least a portion of the passenger compartment in which the occupying item is situated is irradiated, reflected, modified or transponded radiation from the occupying item are received, e.g., by a plurality of sensors or transducers each arranged at a discrete location, the received radiation is processed by a processor in order to create at least one electronic signal characteristic of the occupying item based on the received radiation, each signal containing a pattern representative and/or characteristic of the occupying item and each signal is then categorized by utilizing pattern recognition means for recognizing and thus identifying the class of the occupying item. The pattern recognition means process each signal into a categorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns of received radiation stored within the pattern recognition means and associated with possible classes of occupying items of the vehicle. Once the signal(s) is/are categorized, the operation of the system in the vehicle may be affected based on the categorization of the signal(s), and thus based on the occupying item.
If the system in the vehicle is a vehicle communication system, then an output representative of the number or condition of the occupants in the vehicle may be produced based on the categorization of the signal(s) and the vehicle communication system thus controlled based on such output. Similarly, if the system in the vehicle is a vehicle entertainment system or heating and air conditioning system, then an output representative of specific seat occupancy may be produced based on the categorization of the signal(s) and the vehicle entertainment or heating and air conditioning system thus controlled based on such output.
In one embodiment designed to ensure safe operation of the vehicle, the attentiveness of the occupying item is determined from the signal(s) if the occupying item is an occupant, and in addition to affecting the system in the vehicle based on the categorization of the signal, the system in the vehicle is affected based on the determined attentiveness of the occupant.
One embodiment of the interior monitoring system in accordance with the invention comprises means for irradiating at least a portion of the passenger compartment in which an occupying item is situated, receiver means for receiving radiation from the occupying item, e.g., a plurality of receivers, each arranged at a discrete location, processor means coupled to the receivers for processing the received radiation from each receiver in order to create a respective electronic signal characteristic of the occupying item based on the received radiation, each signal containing a pattern representative of the occupying item, categorization means coupled to the processor means for categorizing the signals, and output means coupled to the categorization means for affecting at least one other system within the vehicle based on the categorization of the signals characteristic of the occupying item. The categorization means may comprise pattern recognition means for recognizing and thus identifying the class of the occupying item by processing the signals into a categorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns of received radiation stored within the pattern recognition means and associated with possible classes of occupying items of the vehicle. Each signal may comprises a plurality of data, all of which is compared to the data corresponding to patterns of received radiation stored within the pattern recognition means and associated with possible classes of contents of the vehicle.
In one specific embodiment, the system includes location determining means coupled to the processor means for determining the location of the occupying item, e.g., based on the received radiation such that the output means which are coupled to the location determining means, in addition to affecting the other system based on the categorization of the signals characteristic of the occupying item, affect the system based on the determined location of the occupying item.
In another embodiment to determine the presence or absence of an occupant, the categorization means comprise pattern recognition means for recognizing the presence or absence of an occupying item in the passenger compartment by processing each signal into a categorization thereof signal based on data corresponding to patterns of received radiation stored within the pattern recognition means and associated with possible occupying items of the vehicle and the absence of such occupying items.